The 'female Viagra' is here, but it's not exactly a miracle sex pill

Meagan Morris is an entertainment and lifestyle journalist living in New York City. In addition to SheKnows, Morris contributes to many publications including The New York Times, Yahoo! News, PopEater, NBC New York and Spinner. Follow he...

Is Addyi the key to an amped-up sex life?

It won't exactly give women an erection that lasts four hours, but the pill that's been touted as "the female Viagra" was finally approved by the FDA. Does this mean we'll all be up to our ears in orgasms after taking a dose?

Sadly, no.

Addyi, a pill made by Sprout Pharmaceuticals specifically for women with unexplainable low sex drives, will hit pharmacy shelves on Oct. 17. The approval ends years of back-and-forth bickering between the FDA and a lobbying group for Sprout that criticized the lack of approved drugs to treat women's sexual issues.

"There are 26 FDA approved drugs to treat various sexual dysfunctions for men," Sprout's "Even the Score" advocacy campaign touted, "but still not a single one for women's most common sexual complaint."

Addyi is finally an answer, but the little pink pill — yes, seriously — doesn't actually do as much for female sexuality as we'd hope, at least according to some experts. Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, the director of the PharmedOut project at Georgetown University who studied the marketing campaign around Addyi, told Vox that the pill is "a mediocre aphrodisiac with scary side effects" that only produces about 0.5 more "sexually satisfying events" over women who don't take the pill.

And yes, the side effects are pretty scary. An FDA investigation found that women who take Addyi and hormonal contraceptives “tended to have a higher incidence of adverse events” like low blood pressure and fainting. Drinking alcohol while on it is a big no-no, too. This means women are at a huge risk of experiencing these side effects since millions of women take hormonal birth control and drink alcohol.

Despite the controversy over Addyi, it's at least something that has the potential to help women want sex again. At the very least, it'll help take at least a bit of the stigma out of women talking about sexual problems.

“I think this is going to change the conversation that’s taking place in medical offices across the country,” Dr. Lauren Streicher, associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University, told The New York Times.